Continued from my previous blog…. My story

I now design all my own patterns and as I’ve become more proficient over time, my designs have become smaller.  My bears used to be about 7 inches standing and now my smallest pattern is 2 inches.  I guess I get the greatest pleasure from making the sort of bears that I most love to collect tiny ones.

When designing a new pattern I use paper, card and a pen and sketch out the rough shape of the head pieces.  (I always start with the head).  I then make up the pieces using felt, because it’s inexpensive.  From there I just make adjustments until I get the shape that I like. Once I’m happy with the head, I move on to the limbs and the body.  I find this the easiest part. Finally I make up the bear with my chosen fabric.  From first sketch to finish bear usually takes about twelve hours.   I only ever work on one bear at a time, anything else would feel too much like a production line and take some of the joy out of the creativity.

I would say that my bears are characterised by their distinctive noses, podgy tummies and big feet.  I just love big feet!  Fairly early on in my bear making, I started experimenting with different ways to create noses.   My favourite medium is polymer clay but I have also created some using resin.  I can’t remember the last time I embroidered a nose and I hate to think what it would look like if I did.  So out of practice!

All of my bears are one of a kind and even if I wanted to re-create a bear, they always come out looking different and take on their own personality in any case.  It’s probably something to do with needle sculpting their faces.  Where you place the stitches and varying the amount of tension in the stitches can give a bear a totally different “expression”.   In any event there are too many designs waiting to take shape, to want to make endless bears all looking the same.

Continued in my next blog.